A Faster Web–for Free

[aryayush]

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November 1, 2006, 2:26 pm
A Faster Web–for Free

Is it just me, or are the freebies starting to blossom once again on the Web? Feels like it’s 1999 all over again.

I’ve got yet another great free one for you today, and it’s a doozie. I read about it in PC World, and couldn’t believe it: a service that purports to speed up your broadband Internet connection. It’s called Open DNS.

Works great, at least for me. Once I plugged the Open DNS addresses into my router, the wait time for a complex Web page went from 3-4 seconds down to 1-2, on both my Macs and PC’s.

In short, Open DNS works by caching a key phase of Web-page requests (namely, DNS requests) from its thousands of users, so that the site you want is blasted to you in a fraction of a second.

There’s no fee, no software to install, you don’t give them any information about yourself, and you don’t have to do anything different once you change your router’s DNS server addresses. (Sounds technical, but the site walks you through the instructions.) As a bonus, Open DNS intercepts phishing scams and corrects Web-address typos, sparing you those headaches. (The typo-correcting feature is where Open DNS plans to make its money; read the site to learn the whole plan.)

My wife and I are totally loving the new speed. Don’t tell Open DNS, but we even would have paid for it.

__________________________________________________ _______________


It is quite an old piece of news but believe me, it works. When someone like David Pogue says something, you should listen to it carefully. I just configured my Mac as the site asked me to (it is dead simple) and I have indeed noticed a very visible increase in speed, specially for the famous sites. I have always scoffed at such measures of increasing the speed of your Internet connection, and I will continue to do so. But this method will not increase the speed of your connection but will help you get the most out of it, and that's a good thing indeed.

I hope everyone and his brother checks out this service. Please post your opinions! Did you feel an increase in the speed of your browsing?

I ran a search for "open dns faster" and I got 998 results, the top most being about the release of the latest version of Ubuntu Linux. Cool! The guys behind vBulletin have done an awesome job with the search feature.

[rakeshishere]

Wonder what these people get by boosting internet speeds!

[aryayush]

Tell me that was supposed to be a joke. No, seriously.

[Desi-Tek.com]

they make money from advertisement
if u r using opendns.com than click here
http://huhahuhahuhahuhahuhauhaua.com
and chk the right side of the page

[Pathik]

i had tried that long back but didnt feel ny difference in speeds..

[mediator]

Read: DNS Servers

Its not just about speed, but also about giving u an alternative if ur ISP's DNS is congested!

[chesss]

I think something similar can be achieved in xp, where DNS addresses are cached in the PC itself and the cached address are used instead of quering.
One can also manually add enties in the hosts file

[kalpik]

Yup.. Its good.. Been using it since a year or so!

[Possible]

Now only if they power it via Google's search system

[The Outsider]

old but yeah works for me.

[mehulved]

I'd rather prefer my PC serving me the DNS's. It's not too much of an overhead for a modern PC.
I have heard these people also collect database of sites visited by you. Any ideas if this is true or false?

[The Outsider]

Originally Posted by tech_your_future

I have heard these people also collect database of sites visited by you. Any ideas if this is true or false?

i guess they do

Does OpenDNS track where I go on the Internet or store data about my usage?

No. OpenDNS does not track where you go or what you do on the Internet, unless you ask us to. OpenDNS stores the following data by default:

which domain names were requested at what time
which requests OpenDNS was unable to resolve

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by tech_your_future

I'd rather prefer my PC serving me the DNS's. It's not too much of an overhead for a modern PC.
I have heard these people also collect database of sites visited by you. Any ideas if this is true or false?

I certainly do not care. I am not visiting a forum where I discuss conspiracy plans to blow up the White House. So, I'm sure I'm in no danger.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

well i tried Open DNS for the whole last week , popular siets like cnet , anadtech showed better performances but less knows sites(Pro****W,etc) n indian sites DIgit Forum took eons to load , specially in case of DIgit forum i was experiencing very long lags so i switched back to my Airtel DNS Servers .

[aryayush]

Well, I am using it now and the Digit forum is loading as fast as ever.

But enter 'yahoo' in the address bar and hit return. Boom, it's there. It's fast, man!

[mehulved]

Originally Posted by aryayush

I certainly do not care. I am not visiting a forum where I discuss conspiracy plans to blow up the White House. So, I'm sure I'm in no danger.

I prefer as much privacy as I get though I know total privacy isn't possible.

[anonymusneo]

i got reliance broadband ..


and i cant use openDNS


dunno why .. maybe because they dont give us a router

but a adsl modem instead

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by anonymusneo

i got reliance broadband ..


and i cant use openDNS


dunno why .. maybe because they dont give us a router

but a adsl modem instead

Did you follow their guide for Windows. It is not very difficult and it is independent of the modem.

[anonymusneo]

yes i tried that guide but it didn't helped me at all


i tried same thing on my friends tata indicom router and open dns is working there

[Tech.Masti]

is this works with Airtel GPRS ???

[alok4best]

yeah guys Open DNS rocks, It definitely boosts ur Internet experience. but there is one problem with open dns..u try to open some websites and it'll say can not find server ..for example try opening http://djluv.in which is a forum..u wont be able to open it with open dns..
However there is one more alternative to ur ISPs default DNS. u can try
4.2.2.X as ur primary as well as secondary DNS ..for x u can use 1,2,3 etc..
example
Primary DNS - 4.2.2.1
Secondary DNS- 4.2.2.2
And its faster than what BSNL has provided me..
69.1.96.69 and 69.1.96.71